Georgii Zhiriakov

Born Feb. 16 (28), 1887, in the village of Seliankino, in what is now Viazniki Raion, Vladimir Oblast; died Jan. 26, 1928, in Moscow. Participant in the revolutionary movement in Russia; Soviet statesman; member of the Communist Party from 1907.

Zhiriakov carried on revolutionary work in Siberia and was persecuted by the authorities. He was a member of the executive committee of the Soviet of Soldiers’ Deputies of the Irkutsk garrison after the February revolution of 1917. He was soon transferred to the 250th Reserve Regiment in the city of Kovrov, Vladimir Province. In August 1917 he became deputy chairman of the Kovrov Soviet of Soldiers’ Deputies and in September a member of the district party committee. He was editor of the newspaper Kovrovskii rabochii at the same time. During the October armed uprising in 1917, Zhiriakov commanded a company sent from Kovrov to Moscow to aid the Moscow workers. From 1918 to 1920 he was a member of the presidium of the Vladimir provincial committee of the RCP (Bolshevik) and chairman of the provincial executive committee. He was a delegate to the Ninth Congress of the RCP (B). In August 1920 he was appointed a commissioner of the Council of Peoples’ Commissars of the RSFSR in Cheliabinsk Province in charge of grain procurement, later becoming chairman of the Cheliabinsk provincial executive committee. In Vladimir from 1921 to 1926, Zhiriakov was chairman of the planning commission,’ a member of the provincial party committee, chairman of the provincial revolutionary tribunal, editor of the journal Nashe khoziaistvo, chairman of the provincial Workers’ and Peasants’ Inspection, and deputy chairman of the textile trust. In 1927 he became secretary of the central committee of the International Organization for Aid to the Fighters for the Revolution. He was elected to the All-Union Central Executive Committee.